MARLBOROUGH – The city recently provided an update on housing homeless and immigrant families in local hotels.
Currently, the city has 33 families of homeless, combined with Haitian immigrants, housed at both the Holiday Inn and Extended Stay hotels. These hotels have state agreements with ownership.
Recent reports have disclosed that the federal government has dispersed thousands of immigrants across the country to date, and the Commonwealth has accepted 20,000 homeless immigrants into Massachusetts, a right-to-shelter state.
“We know that there are 22 Haitian school-age children at the Holiday Inn housed with their parents or guardians, and anticipate the Holiday Inn filling their 170 rooms with Haitian families who speak Creole,” said Mayor Arthur Vigeant in a press release.
There are two organizations handling all the needs of each homeless group. South Middlesex Opportunity Council is handling the general homeless population, and The Eliot Community Human Service organization is managing all the needs of the Haitian immigrant population. Questions can be directed to the council, 508-872-4853, or Eliot Community Human Service, 781-861-0890.
The city of Marlborough is taking steps to find Creole translators and English language learning instruction for this population. If anyone has contacts that may be interested in providing translation services or instruction, please contact the mayor’s office at 508-460-3770.
“The city is making preparations to deal with this crisis while we still have many questions, and more importantly we need to know how many school-age children we need to accommodate in September and how long this temporary housing solution will last,” said Vigeant.
Mayors across the Commonwealth will learn more at an upcoming meeting next week with Gov. Maura Healey and her administration, and the mayor’s office will communicate additional information as it comes.
“State legislators need to put pressure on Washington to act. We need a welcoming bipartisan immigration process that works. It’s not going to happen overnight, but someone needs to take initiative to move things in a positive direction,” said Vigeant.
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